- WCW held Halloween Havoc this past Sunday. The show left me feeling
fairly mixed, although some of the people I've talked with were very
happy with it. It reminded me of mid-1980s WWF show, not just because
of some of the cast members, but more because of all of the angles.
Jimmy Hart & Lex Luger turned heel, demolishing Hulk Hogan & Randy
Savage with the help of the Giant & the Yeti (John Studd's trainee Ron
Reis for the time being; this is apparently supposed to end up as Jose
Gonzalez' role). Ric Flair did the expected and turned on Sting; even
though it was obvious from the beginning of the show (when they
announced that Flair had been attacked by Arn Anderson
Brian Pillman and was doubtful for the match) what the story line
would be, it was entertaining and well-done and does promise good
matches for the future. That almost helps one overlook the story line
inconsistencies, IMO. With all of these things and more happening,
does anybody really remember that the Diamond Doll caved in and gave
Johnny B. Badd a "10" for his work while Diamond Dallas Page was laid
out? Angle overload.
The best wrestling of the night was in the Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko
vs. Blue Bloods match, with Benoit really shining. The Observer
reports that this match was originally going to determine a challenger
team for the Tag Titles and that they had already taped a match
between the Blue Bloods & Harlem Heat. Clearly, there was a change of
heart.
Sabu vs. Mr. J.L. (introduced here without the "Mr.", making the name
even more stupid) was another hodge-podge of high spots slammed
together and called a match. It was really good, but with no pacing
and a five minute time constraint, it's just impossible to tell a
story. The Sheik limped out with Sabu, who ran to the ring, presumably
to keep the camera off the Sheik's pained walk. Unfortunately, he hit
an Asai moonsault just as the Sheik came in range and knocked him on
his butt. The commentators had rambled on about how evil the Sheik was
and this turned him and Sabu instant babyface. Had they shown some old
clips of the Sheik demolishing things and throwing fire in the build
up for the show, it would have added to this match, but they really
didn't give the match the time it needed to be stellar.
- This past week's Observer went on about the WWF's abysmal, IMO, In
Your House PPV:
Just as the cameras faded to black signifying the end of the In Your
House PPV show on 10/22 in Winnipeg, a disgusted Vince McMahon threw
down his glasses and his headset and said the words, 'horrible' as he
started to walk to the back with Jim Ross while a pull-apart brawl
with Bret Hart and Diesel was still going on in the ring. Seconds
later, as the brawl ended, Diesel, the person McMahon had planned to
build the company around one year earlier, was being booed out of the
building, yet another in the long line of failed experiments in his
quest to find the new Hulk Hogan. The virtually unanimous crowd
readtion to Diesel after yet another unimpressive main event match
seems to make it only logical that Bret Hart is destined to have a
career similar to the man who his being compared with results in
outbursts -- Ric Flair. Like Flair, Hart is the man picked to pick up
the pieces time-after-time when experiments of creating new world
champions that will be the next big thing in wrestling end up with
declining box office figures.
For McMahon, the crowd reaction was the crowning jewel of a two week
period that he'd most likely love to take back. It was a two-week
period that saw injuries to two of his key performers, the quitting of
his top assistant, his babyface singles and tag champions being
heavily booed after post-matches that weren't designed to elicit such
responses, poor house show business at every stop, the debut of a
character being groomed for the top echleon falling flat, and among
the worst matches and worst overall PPV shows in company history."
- The RAW vs. Nitro ratings war thus far looks like this (draw your
own conclusions):
WCW Nitro WWF RAW
Rating Share Live Rating Share Live
09/04/95 2.9 ? Y - - -
09/11/95 2.5 3.8 Y 2.2 3.2 N
09/18/95 2.4 3.4 Y 2.5 3.4 N
09/25/95 1.9 2.8 Y 2.7 3.8 Y
10/02/95 2.5 3.7 Y 2.5 3.5 N
10/09/95 2.6 3.8 Y 2.6 3.8 N
10/16/95 2.2 3.2 Y 2.5 3.6 N?
10/23/95 2.2 3.2 Y 2.6 3.8 Y?
- It's expected that Kensuke Sasaki will win the WCW US Title from
Sting in Japan on 11/13/95, in the first night of WCW vs. New Japan
matches that will lead to Starrcade being interpromotional. Coming off
of a story line that cast him as an idiot for falling for Ric Flair's
ruse one more time, Sting is apparently nervous about following that
performance with a title loss, even if it all sets up his regaining
the title in the main event at Starrcade.
- The WWF has Survivor Series on 11/19/95. Tentative line-up includes:
* Bret Hart vs. Diesel for the WWF Title in a cage
* Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Goldust
* Bertha Faye & Aja Kong & Lioness Asuka & Tomoko Watanabe vs.
Alundra Blayze & Kyoko Inoue & Sakie Hasegawa & Chapparita Asari
* Shawn Michaels & Ahmed Johnson & Davey Boy Smith & Sid vs. Dean
Douglas & Yokozuna & Owen Hart & Razor Ramon
* Undertaker & Fatu & Henry O. Godwinn & Savio Vega vs. Jerry Lawler
& Isaac Yankem & King Mabel & Hunter Hearst Helsmley
* Hakushi & Avatar & Marty Jannetty & Barry Horowitz vs. Skip & Rad
Radford & Jean Pierre Lafitte & Tom Pritchard
The print PPV ads in my guide have the pictures for Survivor Series
flipped with the pictures for WCW "World War III." I guess somebody
thought "The Macho Man is WWF stuff, so these guys I don't recognize
[Shawn Michaels & Diesel] must be this WCW stuff."
Despite the embarrassing debut of Goldust at In Your House, the WWF
apparently still plans to attempt to push him to the top level, with a
win here over Bigelow and a match the next night on RAW against Shawn
Michaels.
- WCW has "World War III" on 11/26/95. Tentative line-up has:
* a 60-man three ring battle royal (involving WCW wrestlers and
wrestlers from New Japan) with the winner earning a title shot at
the WCW Title
* Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto vs. Cutie Suzuki & Mayumi Ozaki
The battle royal is being hyped as having a giant in every ring, which
I guess means The Giant, El Gigante, and Ron Reis, who will apparently
get a new gimmick once Gigante is able to work (visa trouble) as the
Yeti.
- The WWF has a PPV on 12/17/95. Tentative line-up has:
* Davey Boy Smith vs. winner of Diesel vs. Bret Hart at Survivor
Series
- WCW has Starrcade on PPV on 12/27/95. Tentative line-up has:
* Sting vs. Kensuke Sasaki for the US Title
* Koji Kanemoto vs. Alex Wright for the IWGP Jr. Title
* Randy Savage vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
* Lex Luger vs. Masa Chono
* Johnny B. Badd vs. Hiro Saito
* Eddy Guerrero vs. Shinjiro Otani
* Chris Benoit vs. Jushin Liger
- Awards: Okay, okay, so I've terribly slow to get the nominations put
together. I'm a little more than halfway through the compilation, and
I'll play around a bit more today and hopefully get them posted
tonight. The plan on my end is to have another week or so for more
nominations (and corrections, etc., to the current batch) and then
we'll start the voting period. (Late note: it looks like the
nominations won't be posted until tomorrow; they *will* be posted).
- Videos: I have posted something about the availability of videos. If
you missed it, I'll send it to you in e-mail upon request. The
VideoMarinepiad III home video is now available.